Rental Market Update July 2011

We are well into the peak home rental season in Ventura County and things are moving along nicely. Supply has dropped off slightly, as of this report there were 318 properties available for rent in the cities we surveyed compared to 330 this time last month. I have included various charts and graphs at the end of this report for you engineer types who like to analyze data. I love it.

In the Conejo and Simi Valle areas there are 156 homes and condos available for rent with an avg asking price of $2822 per month. Simi Valley has the lowest avg asking price of $2495 and Westlake Village is the priciest area with an avg price of $3433. Renters should expect to pay about 1.5 times the monthly rent as a security deposit. Landlords did not give many concessions, security deposits werer close to original quoted amount. All in all things haven’t changed too much since our last report. We continue to see quality properties going quickly. We are seeing fewer former homeowners seeking out rental housing, but I suspect that will end once the foreclosure mess gets straigtened out. There is still a huge backlog of properties in foreclosure limbo. Once these properties are foreclosed on, we will have a new batch of tenants. This should help demand and we will be looking for price increases when this happens. Owners be ready.

The West County has 189 properties for lease with an avg. asking price of $2149. Camarillo continues to see price increases, the avg asking price was $2681, down from $2701 last month but up substantially from this time last year. However the data changes drastically when you look at recently leased properties, the avg price in Camarillo was $2291 or $1.35 psqft and it took only 30 days to execute an agreement. It will be interesting to see if these numbers change much in the next six weeks.

All in all the rental market is fairly healthy. We are still seeing plenty of quality applicants. I am starting to wonder why more of these people aren’t considering buying. According to my calculations, it may make more financial sense. And I am fairly conservative. If we take the countywide avg lease rate of $2289 and compare that to a house payment, a loan of $400,000 would give you close to the same payment, add in taxes and insurance and it drops some, but this is more than offset by the tax and principal payment benefits.

If it were me, I’d be looking to buy. One of our clients just purchased a property for $145 psqft. This is less than replacement cost. Please contact our office at 805-499-7300 if you have questions about buying, selling, or renting a property. If you are looking for property management we can help you there to.